Return to the Fold
by Hulihana
Summary: The long awaited sequel to Into the Fold. Castle has been initiated into the group, but what happens when he betrays their leader's trust? Will he be accepted back into the fold? This story follows the detectives of the 12th precinct, and their lives as members of a group who are much closer than simply friends, co-workers, or partners while one member fights to return to the fold.
1. Chapter 1

**For everyone that read Into the Fold, here's the long awaited sequel. Please enjoy. For anyone that may be new to this story, I would suggest reading Into the Fold first or you may find yourself rather confused. I also want to warn anyone, whether they've read Into the Fold or not, this story is rated M for a reason and will contain sexual material later on. If you this is not something that appeals to you, please, do not even begin this story. Thank you.**

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Detective Kate Beckett worked to hide her ever growing annoyance from the woman seated opposite her. The dark-haired woman, whom Beckett had dubbed 'The Cosmo Lady' as she'd forgotten her name, it's not like it really mattered anyways, was still asking her questions. Questions that she should probably be listening to so she doesn't answer with anything to personal that the reporter could use in her article.

Stick to the script Kate.

Despite her best efforts to not even look at the goings on in the rest of the precinct, she couldn't completely keep her focus off the man in the middle of a photo shoot at the other end of the bullpen. Richard Castle. She scoffed at the name. What a pain in the ass. She couldn't believe that she ever actually trusted him. That she had told him many of her deepest secrets. Truth be told, she'd done a lot more than just talk to him as well.

Over the preceding months, she'd let him take her in nearly every position imaginable; along with the boys of course.

Beckett couldn't help but curse herself when she thought of the exact moment that she had decided to let the writer into her inner circle. When she had let the boys and her own feelings convince her that he really wasn't always the person who showed up on page 6. That he was capable of being an actual human being too. Well, he had certainly destroyed that by going behind her back to dig into her mother's case. An act which she had been perfectly clear would cause the end of their partnership both in and outside the precinct.

She should have known his sense of morbid curiosity would always overcome any sense of belonging that her team could possibly have instilled in him. It would overcome any responsibility he had to her and to her boys.

He was a selfish jackass and that's all there was to it. She had made a mistake by letting him in. One she never intended to make again.

And now, just watching him with the bachelor party twins hanging all over him with that smug smile on his face; she wished she didn't have to set her eyes on him ever again.

But wait, the reporter was still asking her questions. What was that she had just said?

"Really?" she asked. Ms. Cosmo hadn't really just said that had she. Oh, she had!

"By who?" As if she didn't already know. She needed confirmation though. Something she could use to kick Castle out of the precinct and her life permanently.

"By Castle." Ms. Cosmo replied, grinning as if she had hit the jackpot. And she'd hit the jackpot alright. She'd found the most egotistical, thick-headed writer of the bunch.

Ah and perfect timing. Here comes Montgomery. Now just to put her plan of giving Castle the boot into action.

"Would you excuse me for a moment?" she stated more than asked, not even giving the other woman a chance to argue before she was escaping the incessant questions, the answers to which she had mostly learned by rote and could just give the woman her study sheet of appropriate answers, and made a beeline for the captain.

"Sir, could I talk to you in private for a moment?" She asked as she stood from her desk and approached her mentor who was already headed in the direction of his office, "Please." She tacked onto the end of her request. He was, after all, her captain.

"Now" she added in a loaded tone, negating any sense of this being a request as she cut off his attempts to brush her off with some meeting or other he just had to attend to immediately.

"We had a deal Beckett," he began as he proceeded her into the office, having apparently decided that he wasn't going to be able to avoid her.

"The deal is off" she stated clutching her coffee cup tightly in her right hand, trying to keep herself under control. Really of all the arrogant-

She was brought back to the situation at hand by her boss asking what the problem was and she knew without a doubt that this was her one chance to get Castle and the interruption that was his presence out of her precinct once and for all.

"Not only does he have the bachelor party cop twins out there using him as a stripper pole," Beckett began, deciding to begin strong even knowing herself that this was laying it on a little thick, "while I make nicey-nice with the press, but do you know what he said?"

"No" Montgomery answered with an infuriating little smirk as if he knew exactly what was going on and he found it amusing to no end.

"He said he has been _instrumental_ in helping _us_ solve crimes" she stated contemptuously, the expression on her face akin to that worn by a lawyer who knew they had just delivered the winning argument in a case.

Unfortunately for Beckett, she had never gone on to become a lawyer, and her victory was short lived.

"Well hasn't he?" Montgomery argued back with a little shrug.

After a short pause in which she realized that her argument wasn't going to work as she had anticipated it to she came back weakly, "That isn't the point."

Beckett knew she had been beaten when he once again emphasized that NYPD's need for good press and that this order came directly from the mayor himself. As stubborn and strong willed as the female detective was, she knew that she wasn't going to win this one without a valid complaint against the writer and that she was better off putting up with his presence for a short time longer and saving the fight with Montgomery for another time.

"Ok, fine" she conceded, her jaw clenched. Just because she had accepted defeat against her captain, it didn't mean she had to like it.

She was summarily dismissed and in looking at her coffee cup, she realized that it was depressingly empty. And with a day like today, she was definitely going to need a double shot of espresso to make it through without shooting someone, namely Castle.

Beckett didn't even try to hide her smirk when she saw her boys hitting on one of the 'bachelor party cop twins' in the break room.

Having noticed her arrival, they both took their turns at making a jab at her. "Hey Beckett, how come you don't wear a uniform like that?" Esposito asked, looking her up and down with a knowing look.

"Because I don't want to get paid in singles, especially by you two" she snarked back with barely concealed amusement. Maybe she would surprise them the next time they were all together in a very different capacity outside of the precinct she decided. Filling the thought away for a later time, along with the one which wondered how Lanie would look in a naught nurse outfit beside her.

She noticed them both take a step back away from her and turned in time to see Castle poke his head around the doorframe. Great, just the man she had hoped to avoid for today. Well, forever if she were really being honest with herself.

"Oh, hey, don't we have that thing?" she heard Ryan remark behind her and knew that they were paying her back for her comment by leaving her alone with the writer. Maybe she wouldn't by buying that outfit after all. They didn't really deserve it anyways.

"No" Esposito replied, and she would have felt warmth at his apparent stand of solidarity if he hadn't still been wearing that smirk that always meant he had something up his sleeve.

"Yeah you know, that thing with the guy." Ryan just wouldn't give up, and now his expression matched that of his partner.

She turned to level them with a look, but couldn't completely manage to hide her earlier amusement at their antics.

"Oh yeah! That thing, with the guy." Esposito exclaimed as if having forgotten about it all along before they both ran from the room like dogs with their tails between their legs.

She had almost managed to forget that Castle was still in the doorway behind her, that is, until he opened his mouth.

"I just wanted you to know I had nothing to do with this." He began, and at her eyebrow raised in skepticism he continued trying to dig himself out of the hole he had created, "I mean, it was the magazine, I- well uh, the mayor, thought it would be good press."

"You don't have to explain yourself to me Castle" she answered, shrugging her shoulders as if she didn't have a care in the world.

"Really?" he asked hopefully. Oh, Castle, how naïve can you be? She wondered to herself if he really believed that blatant lie.

Regardless, she let him continue on in his fantasy world, "Really", until it all came crashing down around him.

"See. I don't care anymore." Beckett continued in that same light tone, "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have an interview to get back to." And with that she walked past him and out the door back in the direction of her desk.

But of course, he wouldn't be Castle if he just let it go and got out of her life for good. "What did I do that was so wrong?" he continued to argue as he turned and quickly caught up with her.

"The one thing I asked you _not_ to do." Her tone decidedly tense now but she continued to maintain her façade, not willing to allow her coworkers, not to mention the press, see her as anything other than her calm, confident, and always in control self.

"Ok, so you asked me not to look into your mother's murder, but look at what I found!" he exclaimed as if he were a little boys showing his mother something he'd found out in the yard and was desperately looking for approval. She repressed the urge to scoff. As if getting results excused his actions. As if breaking her trust were worth it.

She had put the case behind her a long time ago for her own good and she didn't hesitate to let him know that.

"We can get back to that interview now." She directed her next comment to the Cosmo lady who was still seated beside her desk, plastering a fake smile to her face once again, and summarily dismissing the man who had been following her.

She once more found herself reconsidering the cop uniform when Esposito interrupted, informing her of a murder and saving her from having to speak to the infuriating woman, or even more infuriating man any longer that day.

That is, until Ms. Cosmo piped in about how much her readers would just_ love_ to see Castle in action and of course, Montgomery had to hear the woman's comment and intercept any attempt to be rid of the woman.

"Well we wouldn't want to disappoint your readers now would we Detective?" he asked, and even though he was technically speaking to the other woman, everyone else in the room knew his comment was directed towards Beckett. The fact that this was a command was made even more clear by the glare that he leveled on his best detective, telling her in no uncertain terms to agree and to play nice.

She saw Castle turn to her, his face lit up in excitement, out of the corner of her eye and had to bite the inside of her lips hard to bite back the retort that was on the tip of her tongue, and instead answering with a polite, "Of course not sir."

With that Montgomery turned his back on the group and shut the door to his office behind them.

All three boys were grinning excitedly, though for very different reasons. Esposito's look kind of reminded her of when he compared watching her with Castle to shark week on television.

The only thought running through Beckett's mind; _Why me?_

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**A/N cont: Hey everyone, I want to start out by apologizing for how long it took to get this sequel started. I got side tracked by the kink meme and then school, but I'm back to writing now and here's the result. I've got the first few chapters as well as some random one's here and there already written so with any luck I won't have any trouble updating on a regular basis. If I do, you all have permission to yell at me, deal? Until then, let me know what you think so far, and if you've got any ideas of things you'd like to see in this story. I've got a working outline but as it isn't completely written there is some wiggle room for me to change things around here and there if I get inspired by something. Thanks for reading!**


	2. Chapter 2

"Since you two seem so giddy to have your girlfriend back, he rides with you." Beckett stated with a heated look at Ryan and Esposito before turning her back on the lot of them and striding out of the bullpen, her heels clicking louder than normal the only indication of the fury that was rolling through her.

Their dumbfounded expressions behind her even lasted long enough for her to get into the elevator and have the doors closed before they could catch up with her.

Of course, with Manhattan traffic being what it is, they were right with her the entire way to the crime scene, but at the very least she didn't have to deal with Castle's continued attempts to coerce her to let him back into the precinct, and into her life.

Her solitude didn't last long, when he ran over to her like an eager, overgrown puppy the moment the boys' car stopped moving and started up once again. Although the sight of him getting out of the back of Esposito's squad car was nearly enough to sway her for a second. And she found herself trying hard to hide her amusement when he offered to make it up to her by offering her a pony. The man was infuriating, but before all of this, she had developed a certain fondness for his childishness. At times.

"Focus, Castle. Crimescene, okay." She reprimanded, reminding both him and herself that it was time to act like a professional.

Her command lasted for all of three seconds before he piped up again, "It's raining men" he observed as they all looked upwards to see Lanie conducting her preliminary observations of the victim who was tangled in the branches of a tree.

"Castle? What are you doin' here?" she questioned, disapprovingly. Well, at least she knew she could count on Lanie to have her back.

"Don't worry. We're still mad at him." She confirmed for her friend, even as she heard two of the three stooges off to her side, "Guy in a tree… Mom and Dad bickering… Seems like old times."

Beckett decided to ignore them for the time-being. She'd get her revenge sooner or later, but now wasn't the time for that. Now it was time to be serious and find a killer.

"How's it goin' up there?" she questioned, indicating to the boys that it was time to stop joking around.

Unfortunately, her friend didn't seem to take the hint, "I've got branches poking my boobs and a spotlight shining up my booty." Lanie observed in a bored sounding voice.

Of course, this incited the childish tendencies of the rest of her team, and Esposito couldn't help but comment, "It could be worse. You could be wearing a skirt."

"When I come down, I'mma smack you." Lanie leveled him with a stern look, but it didn't faze the detective.

"I'll be looking forward to that."

Despite their banter, one wouldn't have assumed that Lanie and Esposito had been dating for the last two months. They had finally admitted their attraction for one another, and Lanie had even been accepted into their inner circle outside of the precinct. She had seemed to take the news exceptionally well for as long as the friends had been hiding the relationship from her, and well, it really was refreshing to have another woman added to the mix. Although, seeing as she was officially dating Javi, they changed their former strict rules that none of them could sleep together without everyone present. Lanie joined them every time the group got together, but it was also well understood that the pair could engage in whatever activities they wished to away from everyone else and that Lanie could opt out at any time without hard feelings from anyone else.

They did keep the relationship well hidden from everyone else at their respective workplaces to maintain professionalism and aside from Esposito's grin, this crime scene was no different.

"Here" Lanie warned before tossing a black leather wallet down to the detective and summarizing what she had found, "Vic's a white male, late thirties, judging from the cracked branches, I'm guessing he did a Superman off the top of that building."

"His name is John Allen," Esposito picked up where his girlfriend had left off, "ID has him living on the upper west side and business card has him in insurance."

"Is it a suicide?" a female voice asked and Beckett realized that the Cosmo reporter was indeed still with them. She'd almost managed to forget that she was tagging along and taking notes on everything she saw.

"It's not a suicide" Castle and Beckett spoke together, as in sync as they ever were.

Beckett couldn't have contained the eye-roll if she had wanted to as Castle jumped in to explain to the woman how he knew the man in front of them had been murdered instead of having killed himself.

At least she had managed to get some useful information, Beckett decided when Castle once again interrupted her investigation by turning to the reporter to explain exactly what a ligature mark was.

"Wow, you really know your stuff. No wonder they like having you around." The Ms. Cosmo commented, and it was the final straw for Beckett. She couldn't take one more moment of this little show-and-tell session that was going on without strangling someone, and at this point she couldn't decide who deserved it more; Castle, or that damned reporter. Maybe it was just a writer thing, a requirement of the job that you be exceedingly obnoxious.

Having decided it was best not to add another homicide to the boys' workload, she knew it was time for Castle and his tagalong to leave. A quick look at Lanie warned her best friend that she was going to be asking for a favor; one she'd be happy to repay in full at a later time. With an impressive amount of self-control, Beckett kindly suggested that his talents (talents? Ha) were currently being wasted and that he'd be much better off helping Dr. Parish take the body back to the morgue instead.

Of course, he wouldn't be Castle if he gave in that easily, despite her warning and the undercurrent of 'do as I say' running through her every action.

"Fine," he relented, "but I was serious about the pony." Then as he turned to direct his next comment at the Cosmo reporter, "C'mon, I'll show you the, uh, morgue… mobile." He finished lamely.

The three detectives all smirked openly when he had led her away and Beckett was able to get her investigation back on track. Why on Earth would she want a pony in Manhattan anyways?

"Anything found in the wallet?"

"Nope, drying cleaning ticket, ID, two credit cards. Cash was missing though." Ryan observed, handing the wallet to check it out for herself.

"It's a long way to go for a robbery." She commented, taking another look to the man in the tree branches.

She then sent the boys out to canvass the building while she waited for Lanie to finish her preliminary and descend from the tree on a forklift.

"Don't worry girl, you do your thing and I'll deal with Writer-Boy, but you owe me." The ME spoke as she passed by her friend and received a grateful look in return.

"Now what makes you think I wouldn't make this up to you Lanie?" she asked her friend, eyes wide with fake innocence.

Lanie just stared at her not buying her act for a second as she waited for the punchline. Beckett knew there was a reason she was so close to the feisty medical examiner.

"You'll just have to wait until after the case is over for me to do so which means you had better get back to the morgue and perform that autopsy." She finished with a smirk on her lips and glint in her eye.

The other woman quickly understood Beckett's reference and got a matching gleam in her own eye as she leaned forward to speak quietly, directly into her friend's ear, "Oh, I'll be looking forward to that girl. You know I always love our little rendezvous once you guys have closed your case. Will your writer man be joining us? I've always wondered what it would be like adding a third man into the mix."

And with that the fire in Beckett's eyes died a little and Lanie internally cursed herself for even bringing it up in the first place. That was one thought she should have kept to herself and she knew it. The wound was still too fresh in the taller woman's mind to poke at it. In fact, that may just be one other thing that would never really heal properly.

"No, he's never coming back." Beckett finally answered, interrupting the ME's internal berating of herself.

Lanie nodded in understanding before turning away and moving to meet Castle and the reporter at the van.

Beckett watched long enough to see Lanie and Castle get into the back of the transport vehicle and the reporter get into the front seat before she entered the building to see how the boys canvass was coming along. The longer she could be away from Castle and the painful reminder of how much of a mistake she had made by letting him in so deep the happier everyone would be.

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Beckett hurried out to her cruiser and quickly pulled into traffic, aiming the car back for the precinct. She had sent the boys back to the precinct ahead of her when they'd gotten the call that the ME's van had been apprehended en-route to the morgue and while he never would have admitted it, she knew Espo wouldn't believe his girlfriend was alright until he saw her for himself.

Having decided to save them all a little agony, she had assured them that she would finish the canvass herself, there were only a couple more doors to knock on anyways, and would meet them back at the precinct. Questioning the remaining tenants ended up taking longer than expected, however, and while it further validated her decision to send Ryan and Esposito back early, she too wanted to see for herself that her friend really was alright.

Arriving on the homicide floor of the twelfth, she could see Lanie examining Castle and upon seeing that they were visually fine, she made a detour to the break room for a quick cup of coffee before joining the group just in time to overhear Castle spouting some obscene theories about mad scientists.

Deciding to cut his rambling off before he really got going, she doused him with a cold dose of reality.

"Or the guys who killed him might have left some evidence behind."

Of course, she should have known, nothing that simple would be able to shut Castle up.

"Boring," he answered without even turning around and continuing on as if she had never spoken at all, "how about a spy having swallowed a top secret microchip that the enemy forces murder him over before the CIA can get ahold of him?"

Now at least he has turned to face her, as if challenging her to shoot him down again.

Challenge accepted, she thought to herself, but this time she had a much better option than just trying to get him to stop throwing out ridiculous theories that were more of a distraction than an investigative aid.

"As much as we all appreciate your insightful and incredibly believable theories, Ms. Cosmo is gone so I believe you can go home now." She smirked back at him, noticing out of her peripheral vision that everyone else had gathered into a group behind Castle to watch what to them must certainly be a very entertaining show. There had even been a time when she herself got quite the kick out of the banter that could develop between them. Of course, that time had ended as soon as she'd realized that he had gone digging into her mother's case. Now he was just a nuisance that needed to get out of her precinct so that she could continue on with her investigation.

"Oh, no no no no," Castle protested, standing and taking a step towards her, "and I'm a witness" he argued coming to stand at her side and looking towards the watching bystanders for help.

The boys and Lanie of course weren't offering him anything, they were securely behind her. Her boss on the other hand apparently hadn't gotten the memo, as with a lifted eyebrow and a small tilt of his head, he made his position on the matter of whether or not Castle remained in the precinct perfectly clear.

"Alright," She capitulated, speaking more at that moment to Montgomery than Castle even though she had spun on her heel to face him no more than a foot away. "I will allow you to work this one case with me if you promise to leave me alone when it's over and not to weasel your way back in."

"Deal." He answered, not backing down and staring back into her eyes. "But I will make you change your mind."

"I won't"

"You will"

Neither could resist trying for the last word and Beckett winced internally when she realized that Castle would win that round, since she couldn't continue without sounding like a petulant child repeating her argument over and over. Instead, she again spun around and made her way over to her desk.

"So what's the next step, talk to the victim's family?" Castle asked trailing behind her as he always had.

"Yes Castle," she huffed in irritation, "let's go."

This day really couldn't get any longer she decided as she left her untouched cup of coffee on the corner of her desk and led her shadow towards the elevator.

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**So what do you think? Just as a reminder, and to reply to a couple of my guest reviewers, this is all happening during the beginning of season 2 of cannon. These aren't the same characters that they are today in season 7, and Castle looking into Johanna's case was a huge betrayal at that time that seriously hurt Beckett. Therefore, it's going to take some time, and yes some grovelling, before these two get their act together again. Just remember, this is the very beginning of a story that I'm expecting to be over 100k words. Just have a little patience with me and I promise it will get less rocky later on. Plus some more smut :D**

**Also, for anyone who isn't new to this story, this is the newly edited chapter 2.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Sorry it's a little late, but you may all get another shorter story tonight as a reward for being so patient. Just a quick note that I understand this story is currently following very close to the events in cannon. This is done intentionally and the timeline will do so throughout the story, but after this first episode it won't be in the same manner as the last couple chapters have been. Things will veer off more and show what happens outside of the events of the show, as well as how they interlock with the plot of this altered tale. So just hang with me if you don't care for this current theme because I promise it won't hold true for the entire story. I just think that the events in the first episode really set the tone for the first part of the season and there isn't a good part to cut out without missing something important even if I tried xD**

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The car ride from the precinct to the family's house was silent. That is to say Beckett had made it abundantly clear that she was uninterested in conversation when she immediately turned the radio on and cranked up the dial before even putting the car into gear.

For once the writer took the hint without commenting or trying to speak anyways just to irritate her further. He must have noticed the aura of tension surrounding her and realized that he couldn't push much more without risking bodily harm. She actually kind of wished he had though, just so she had an excuse to wipe that smug smile off his face in a very different way than she had many times before in a very different setting.

They arrived at the victim's home without further incident and were greeted at the door by his wife.

This was always Beckett's least favorite part of the job, having to break the news of someone's death to their loved ones, but she was also the best at it because she'd been there. She knew what it was like to be on the receiving end of news that rocked your world to its very foundations. And it was because of this knowledge, that no matter how much she dislike this aspect of her job, she couldn't stomach the thought of putting it off on someone else; someone who couldn't empathize with the families of the victims the way she could.

Castle, thankfully, remained quiet and out of her way while she broke the news to the wife who seemed to be in a state of shock, silent tears trickling out of the corners of her eyes to leave tracks down her cheeks.

They allowed the woman her time to grieve until she seemed unable to sit still a moment longer and got quickly to her feet. "He was right here, just a couple of hours ago." She observed, looking at the front door as if her husband would walk through it at any moment.

Deciding that the woman was ready to talk, and wanting to forestall her downward spiral until after they had left, Beckett began to push for information.

"Do you know of any reason why he'd be in that part of town?"

The questions went smoothly and it didn't seem like the wife would be of much help, just saying that her husband worked hard and had just gotten home from a business trip to Albuquerque.

Smooth went right down the drain though the moment Castle opened his mouth.

"Are you sure he was working late?" the writer questioned, causing the woman to turn to face them fully and leveling him with a skeptical glare.

"What are you saying, that he was cheating?" she asked defensively before striding angrily past them into the middle of the living room before spinning back around again, "Every night he would walk through that door and the kids would just race into his arms, okay?" she raged, nearly breathless with anger and incredulity.

"And now he's gone. So don't ask me if he was really working late, tell me why he was killed." She finished scornfully, but also with a hint of pleading.

Beckett quickly stepped forward to intervene, before Castle ruined the entire interview, but the writer was not to be deterred, interrupting her attempts at an apology by questioning further, "What about phone calls, maybe late at night?"

"Castle!" She admonished, turning to him in exasperation, hoping that her disapproval still stood for something. Hoping that it would be enough to get him to stop antagonizing the grieving widow. He knew how she felt about the victim's families, and it was pretty clear that the wife had nothing to do with his murder. There was no need to push her like this when she was still processing the idea that her husband was dead.

Wait, what?

Beckett's whipped her head around to stare at the woman when she instantly brightened and informed them that one of the guy's her husband had fired would call late at night to yell at him about his termination.

The interview was turning out to have actually been useful, although Beckett was loath to admit that Castle had any part in helping make it successful.

Then came the moment that she had been dreading.

"Where is he? I'd like to say goodbye."

Beckett looked everywhere but at the woman, even looking to Castle for help but of course he avoided her, too busy studying an interesting spot on the ceiling to be of any help.

"About that… U-um we don't really have his body…"

"What do you mean you don't have his body? Then how do you know that he's actually dead?" she asked not even trying to conceal the spark of hope in her eyes.

"We had his body. We just… don't… anymore." Beckett jumped in trying not to allow the woman any more false hope than she already had. The last thing she needed was to hold onto the belief that her husband wasn't really dead.

"How do you-"

"It was stolen" When Castle finally did speak, Beckett found herself wishing that he had just continued staring silently at the ceiling instead. It took all of her self-control to keep from stomping on his foot for his careless reaction to the widow's continued questioning.

"Stolen?! How is a body stolen from the police?" the widow asked, her voice rising with each word as she stared at the two of them with wide eyes.

"Our ME's vehicle was stopped by several armed gunmen who proceeded to take your husband's body. We don't know any more details at this time." Beckett spoke, while directing a glare at Castle that dared him to speak another word.

"Well then I guess you should be out there looking for it instead of accusing my husband of cheating on me now shouldn't you." The woman snarked before walking to the door and holding it open in an obvious invitation for them to make their exit.

They proceeded to follow her to the door and out into the hallway, after which Mrs. Allen promptly shut the door firmly behind them with a roll of her eyes.

Beckett immediately turned around and found herself face-to-face with Castle, her eyes wide in disbelief at what had just occurred.

"That was awkward." The bestselling author commented. 'What an understatement' thought Beckett. That may very well have been the most awkward conversation she's ever had with a victim's family, and that's a bold statement coming from a veteran homicide detective.

"It just… it doesn't make any sense," she spoke her thoughts allowed as she moved on to the case, and away from the family on the other side of the door, "The guy has a stable, middle class life; good family, good job."

"Maybe his friend Max was jealous" Castle pointed out.

No matter what she may think of him on a personal level, Castle did seem to have a sixth sense of what she was thinking and know just how to help her arrive at the proper conclusions to solve a case.

"Maybe enough to kill him, but to steal his body?" she threw back, but it was a solid enough idea to look into it. She retrieved her phone from her pocket and hit speed dial number 3. She really needed to fix that too. The man who had betrayed her should not be the first person on her speed dial.

"Hey Esposito…"

After explaining Castle's theory to Espo she turned back around to find the writer staring at her.

"Still creepy Castle."

That seemed to do the trick as he lowered his eyes for a moment before looking back up to her once again, his eyes meeting hers as if he was able to stare directly into her soul. This time it was Beckett's turn to blink and look away.

"So, what's our next step?" he inquired his eyes lighting up like a child's at Christmas.

"I need you to go home Castle." She states quietly, her voice and face telegraphing the conviction behind her request. She needed some space to think and it seemed their connection hadn't broken over the summer as he opened his mouth as if to automatically argue, but then snapped it shut with a click of his teeth.

"Alright Beckett, I'll go home and see if I can get Alexis to play with me if you won't" he smirks, his eyes glinting with mischief and giving away exactly what kind of playing he has in mind.

"But if you need me…" he trails off meaningfully, his entire demeanor changing in the blink of an eye from horny teenager to her earnest partner. To be honest, Beckett didn't know how to handle the man, or her own swirling emotions.

He had betrayed her. She had specifically told him not to look into her mother's murder and he had gone directly out and done what he wanted anyways, just like the spoiled rich boy the tabloids portrayed him to be. But then on the other hand, she had thought she'd known him. She had slept with him, let him into their inner circle. She had vouched for him and it had come back to bite her in the ass.

Beckett needed space and time to think about how to react to his sudden return to her life and what his true motives really were. Did he just want to get into her pants again? He had yet to show even an ounce of remorse for what he had done, instead acting as if he were entitled to be a part of her life and those of her team.

She raised her eyes to meet his for a split second and released the bottom lip she hadn't even realized had been pulled between her teeth. Beckett nodded her head in understanding before turning and leading the writer to a silent elevator ride back out onto the street.

Castle strode away to catch a cab while Beckett got back in her cruiser to return to the precinct.

* * *

"Yo Beckett, we've got him." She heard from across the bullpen nearly an hour after she had left Castle at the vic's apartment.

Success she thought to herself, standing to meet Esposito at the murder board where he slapped the man's picture onto the board.

"Alright, take Ryan and go pick him up." She ordered, turning around to make for her desk and nearly running headlong into Montgomery.

"Got something Beckett?"

"Yes sir, we found a man who used to work with the vic until he was fired. His wife said he's received several late night calls from this man, Max Haverstock, upset about having been fired. The boys are about to bring him in now."

"Good work Beckett," he said turning as if to go back to his office before turning back, "Oh, and um, where's Castle?"

Beckett froze like a deer caught in a pair of headlights. Busted, she thought wryly. She knew it was too good to be true that she had gotten rid of the writer for the entire afternoon. She really must have done something wrong in another life to deserve this kind of torture now.

"C-castle sir? He, uh, went home?" her answer coming out as more of a question.

"Home?" Montgomery repeated, his voice communicating his displeasure.

"Yeah, he wanted to check in with his family, right Beckett?" Ryan asked, coming to stand at her shoulder. Good old Ryan, she'd have to remember to give him a special treat the next time they were all together. Maybe after this case…

Focus. Beckett ordered herself as she met her captain's calculating gaze.

"Oh, well, if that's all then I expect we'll see him back here by the time Ryan and Esposito have returned with your victim?" his question coming across as more of a command, and Beckett knew that's exactly what it was.

"Of course sir" she replied conceding to his demands.

With that, Montgomery turned once more and this time proceeded to his office, but not being throwing one last warning glare to Beckett and her team before shutting the door to his office with a sense of finality.

'Play nice' his glare read and it was with a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach that she knew this would be her last warning.

"You owe me." Ryan's whisper in her ear breaks Beckett from her thoughts and she whirls around in surprise, having completely forgotten that the Irishman was standing behind her.

"Oh, don't worry Ryan. I'll make it up to you later." She replied with a smirk and brushed past him as she returned to her desk to prepare for the coming interrogation.

The man gulped heavily before rushing off to find his partner. The sooner this case was solved, the better.

* * *

"Are you sure this is the guy?" Beckett asked, watching through the two-way mirror into interrogation.

"Max Haverstock. And he confirmed he knew the vic." Espo answered, a matching look of confusion on his face.

"This guy couldn't throw a wet sponge off a roof, let alone a body." Castle threw in his two-cense from her other side.

Castle had readily come back to the precinct when she had called to let him know about their latest development, while still making it known in no uncertain terms that she was less than thrilled about having to make said phone call.

She only spared the writer a quick glance before straightening up and looking back at Esposito who rewarded her with a sympathetic look. He knew how much she didn't want the writer there, and how wounded she had been by the man's actions. How wounded they all had been.

Unfortunately, orders were orders, and Montgomery had made it clear that she had to allow Castle in on all aspects of the case. In this moment, that list included interrogations.

Beckett didn't even look at the man this time, simply walking past him into the hallway, but leaving the door open behind her as an open invitation to join if he wished. The author of course followed at her heels as she entered the interrogation room.

"Mr. Haverstock" she began, catching the man's attention.

"Yes"

"Do you know why you're here?"

"No, they just told me I needed to come in."

"It's about John Allen. He was murdered last night?"

"That's terrible" the man answered, confusion written all over his face.

"You and he were friends?" Beckett continued.

"We had adjoining cubicles."

"When was the last time you saw him?"

"Oh, not since D-day. That's what we called it. D for downsizing."

"You were let go?" she asked, something the man had said pricking at her subconscious.

She continued the interrogation, questions flying fast and furious across the table to her suspect who was becoming more and more animated; agitated.

Castle watched the two, his eyes moving back and forth as if he were watching a ping pong match.

"Is that why you killed him?" Beckett asked, going in for the kill.

"Who?" Haverstock asked, confusion evident on his face as he derailed her entire line of questioning.

"John" Beckett answered, hoping to salvage the momentum she had been creating this entire time.

"Why would I want to kill John?"

"For firing you." She replied, now nearly as confused as her suspect.

"He didn't fire me. We were let go together on D-day. Fortunately I was able to find another job."

"He didn't have a job?"

"Guess he doesn't have to look for one anymore."

Beckett gave the man a withering look for that last comment, and had to physically restrain a huff of frustration. She had been so sure just moments ago that this was their guy, and now it seemed that their case had just become a whole lot more complicated.

As she met Castle's eyes, she remembered that it wasn't the only thing in her life becoming more complicated with every passing moment. In fact, she kind of wished she could have just called in sick today. Or for the whole week for that matter. What were the chances that Montgomery would buy that she had come down with food poisoning?

Castle gave her a questioning look as she grimaced having answered her own question. The man was leaving her to suffer. No way in hell was he letting her out of this mess now. She would just have to figure out how to handle Castle on her own and employ one of her favorite methods of stress relief with the aid of her team after the case had been closed.

A time which couldn't come soon enough for Beckett.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Hello everyone. I want to thank anyone who has previously read this story for sticking with me and greet anyone who is new. At this point may be helpful to re-read the first three chapters of this story, or even go back to the original to get an idea of what's going on here. But, on to the good news! School is out which means I've had time to recreate my outline to the best of my memory and maybe adding some new points along the way and better yet I've been able to write this next chapter for you. With school out, and expecting no further computer problems, crossing my fingers, this story will get back track with regular updates because there is still a long way to go. So without further ado, enjoy the newest chapter of my Fold universe! And then please, let me know what you think. Constructive criticism is always helpful.**

* * *

"He's just so infuriating Lanie! He knows he isn't wanted anymore, that he doesn't belong, and yet he just keeps coming back. What am I supposed to do?" A frustrated Beckett asked looking imploringly at her best friend who was currently sitting beside her. Beckett had asked Lanie over for supper and some wine, an activity the two women participated in every couple weeks, and while it was seemingly routine that the detective would want to get together simply to spend a relaxing evening in with her friend, Lanie knew better. The ME knew that what Beckett really wanted was to talk about Castle, and her friend was doing nothing to disprove that theory.

"Oh honey, I know that he hurt you and that you feel betrayed. I have no idea how you could give up sex with the man, but we all know how important trust is to you. What to do with Castle is up to you girl. The rest of us are more than willing to take your lead on this one."

Beckett released a deep sigh and stared into her glass of red, as if the wine would hold all the answers to her questions.

"It's not that the sex wasn't amazing Lanie. You know that. I just can't believe that after everything he still deliberately went behind my back and did the one thing I asked him not to do. He's like a child that can't exercise the most basic amount of self-control, and I just don't think I can handle that."

She couldn't believe that she had actually allowed the man into her inner circle; that she had trusted him. She should have followed her gut reaction to him when they had first met. The one that told her he was a selfish, immature asshole that she couldn't stand. Instead, she'd believed herself to have been rwrong and that she had misjudged the writer. After all, was it fair to hold someone you idolized up to your expectations? He was human and she had allowed that justification to cloud her judgement and she had let him in. She'd let him in and had gotten burned for it.

"How do I get rid of him Lanie?" she asked, having made her decision on what action to take about her persistent faux cop tagalong.

"I don't know that you can" her friend answered honestly and gracing her with a sympathetic smile. Beckett knew she was right somewhere in the back of her mind, but the majority of her consciousness wouldn't allow that thought to fully register. There had to be a way.

"Beckett? Kate!" Lanie called, finally breaking the detective out of her own thoughts as the brunette snapped around to lock eyes with the other woman. "Your phone is ringing." She answered the unspoken question almost apologetically.

Beckett's brain cleared and instantly she was Detective Beckett again, in charge and ready for action. A feeling which lasted for all of five seconds until she briskly answered the phone and heard an all too familiar voice on the other end.

* * *

After interrogating Haverstock that afternoon, the detectives had received a break in the case when the body turned up once again. The new dump site revealed a gruesome scene wherein the victim had been cut open and his organs had been removed. Traces of cocaine found inside the empty cavity suggested that he had offered himself up as a drug mule.

Lucky for the gang, their drug dealers weren't smart enough to destroy the gloves they'd used when retrieving their drugs and Lanie was able to find fingerprints inside that led them to the dealers safehouse.

A raid and subsequent interrogation led them to a floor trader at Goldman, a man named Ron Bigby. It turned out that Bigby had vouched for their victim, allowing the man to become a drug mule. Bigby informed the detectives that his friend had been having problems with money and before muling, had originally tried gambling as a way to make up for his missing paychecks.

* * *

"Are you sure this is the place?" Beckett asked, looking doubtfully at her surroundings. They were indeed in Chinatown, but not at any place where she would have expected an underground gambling ring to be run out of.

After she'd received Castle's phone call in which he'd excitedly informed her that he knew where the game was being held that night, Beckett called the boys to let them know where to meet her and apologized to Lanie for cutting their night short before parting ways with her friend feeling marginally more comfortable about how to handle Castle.

"Cannell has never steered me wrong" the man in question answered solemnly before climbing into the back of the van to get wired up by the boys.

Esposito crouched down in front of the writer and unbuttoned his shirt, slipping first three tiny disks out of their respective holes. The Latino man smirked as he looked up at Castle. "Been a while since I've helped you out of your clothes bro. I hope you aren't getting too excited 'bout the whole thing."

Castle couldn't have stopped his grin in reply if he'd wanted to. "Doing my best Esposito but a man can only control himself so much you know.

Ryan snorted out a laugh in the background while his partner just matched the writer's grin.

"Can we get this show on the road?" Beckett barked from her spot off to the side, rolling her eyes in response to their childishness. The last thing she needed was a reminder of how good it used to be between them. Back before Castle had gone and ruined it all. As much as the boys may be having fun teasing each other there was a victim and his family out there who deserved justice and a murderer who deserved to face a judge for his crime.

"Yes Mom. Button cam is in place Ryan." Came Esposito's reply, the smile never disappearing from his face despite Beckett's rebuke.

"We're good for picture," Ryan replied as an image of Esposito's face showed up on the screen behind Beckett while the man buttoned up the writer's shirt once more.

"And sound." The Irishman concluded upon hearing his own voice relayed through his headphones.

"So remember, we can hear you but you won't be able to hear us. So once you leave this van you're on your own, okay?" Esposito warned, sobering up once more after the reminder that they were here for a purpose, one which could prove dangerous for the writer.

Castle signaled his understanding, and after one more rundown on the plan from Beckett and the brazen statement on the chances of there being more than one Russian poker player in Chinatown he was gone.

"Anybody else have a bad feeling about this?" Beckett asked, her eyes scanning the screens that were relaying everything Castle saw back to the team in the van.

Both of the boys immediately raised their hands and she felt her stomach sink. "Yeah, that's what I thought." She muttered under her breath. The man may have broken her heart but that didn't mean she wanted something to happen to him. Her entire being was at war with herself over what to do about the man. She still cared about him, that much was clear, but she didn't think the battered pieces of her heart could handle another encounter with one Richard Castle. They just didn't seem to realize it quite yet as her entire body yearned to feel his touch again and her brain rebelled against ever seeing him again, let alone touching him.

Beckett shook her head and forced her jumbled thoughts back to the recesses of her brain. She needed to focus on the here and now in order to keep him safe. The rest could wait for more convenient timing.

She regained control of her wayward thoughts and focused in on what was happening around her just in time to hear "There's a whole table of tattooed Russians" come from the vans speakers. "Apparently there are a lot more Russians in Chinatown than I thought."

_No shit Sherlock._ Beckett thought to herself as she took in the situation. She watched as Castle made his way to the bar where he ordered a scotch and took a seat.

Beckett couldn't help but be impressed as she watched Castle press the bartender for information all under the guise of being there for research to use in his next book. That sense ended though as the writer then ducked his head to speak directly into the mic, relaying the entire conversation that they had just heard. Ryan and Esposito too seemed unimpressed with how easily Castle forgot they could see and hear everything that went on around him.

"Give the guy a gadget and he thinks he's Bond." Esposito muttered.

"Let's just hope he remembers he's wearing a camera before he goes to take a leak" Laments Ryan, causing the other two in the van and turn to look at him with equal amounts of curiosity and disgust.

"Why would you even-" Esposito began before getting cut off by his partner.

"Trust me." Was all the Irishman replied with a knowing look aimed back at him.

"It's not like we haven't seen it all before anyways." Esposito argued back.

"Not like that!" continued Ryan.

"What did he say?!" Beckett broke in, interrupting whatever inane comeback was about to come out of Esposito's mouth.

"That's not the plan Castle! That's not the plan!" She yelled, even knowing well and true that the man couldn't hear her, and in all likelihood wouldn't be stopped even if he could.

While the boys had been fighting, Castle had finished his recap of the information he'd gotten from the bartender and had decided to join the Russian's no limit poker game to see what kind of information he could get out of them. This wasn't the plan at all. He was merely supposed to get in, get a look at their guy, and get out; all before anything terrible could happen to him. The Russian mob was not something you wanted to trifle with. Didn't he know that?

The three detectives watched anxiously and helplessly from the van as Castle sat down at the table with a quick greeting to the others already seated.

"This is no limit table" one of the men spoke in accented, stilted English, as he scrutinized the newcomer.

"That's perfect, because I'm a no limits kind of guy. Change for twenty thousand please." Castle replied smoothly pulling a stack of bills out of his pocket.

_That stupid, arrogant, son of a-_ Beckett thought to herself as she realized that Castle had planned this all along. There's no way he would have brought that much cash with him to Chinatown if he hadn't anticipated joining the game. She could strangle him with her bare hands if she could reach him. Instead, she had to watch as he started in on his explanation again, about how he's a writer there for research and inspiration.

_Smooth Castle._ The group listened as he based the plot of his supposed new novel on the murder that they were investigating. Everyone watching with bated breath to see if any of the poker players would reveal that they were already well acquainted with this story.

While they were watching, one of the men spoke to the rest of the table in Russian, causing everyone but the confused Castle to smirk and laugh.

"Seems like he's making friends." Esposito provides commentary on what they're all watching.

"They just said they're going to take him for everything he's got" Beckett translated, causing the two male detectives to stare at her in confusion and not a little bit of awe.

"You speak Russian?" Espo asked causing her to turn and meet his.

Beckett graced the man with a roll of her eyes before explaining, "Semester in Kiev between junior and senior year," deciding that she may as well have fun while she does so, she puts on her best Russian accent, "Sometimes when I am bored I go to cafes in Little Odessa and pretend to be Moscovite."

"Now that's kinda hot" he replied giving her a heated glance, as if seeing her for the first time.

"Down boy. There'll be time for that later, and if you're really good I'll speak to you in Russian then, but for now can we please focus?"

Her promise seemed to do the trick as Espo put his eyeballs back into their sockets and turned to face the screen once more. "Check their hands, see if there's anything to explain the bruise pattern we found on the vic's neck" she instructs. If she gives them something constructive to do, maybe they'll actually be able to stay on task. Well… at least she can dream, right?

Surprisingly her diversion tactic seems to have paid off. Esposito spots one of the men spinning the end of his finger around and around in circles. It's a prosthetic which explains why it didn't leave a mark on the victim's neck like the rest of his fingers had.

They all seem to come to the realization at the same time, but Esposito is the first to put words to it, "Hey, if he thinks Castle is a threat…."

"We have to get him out of there." Beckett finished the thought for him.

"Security is pretty well armed. If we go in there as cops it could get messy." Espo muses aloud, but Beckett is way ahead of him. A fact that Ryan seems to notice first, "What are you doing?" He asked as she stood and made her way to the back of the van.

"Uh, I'm going to go in there and if I'm not back in ten minutes, you guys call in backup. Can I have my purse please?" asks, extending her hand and making it clear that her request isn't really all that much a request.

Esposito complies but can't help but comment, "What are you going to do, lip gloss him to death?"

"Something like that." She nods before opening the door and quickly shucking off her shirt while both men stare at her openmouthed in shock. Their eyes only grow wider when she continues to remove her pants, barely sparing a glance to make sure no one else but the audience of two in front of her are watching her little show.

"We are definitely going to have to get together tonight." Ryan mutters as he eyes her up and down, frowning slightly when she pulls her coat back on, covering some essential parts of her body from their view.

Beckett smirks at them before fluffing her hair and she can't help but put a little extra swing into her hips as she stalks away from the van towards the club in nothing more than her coat and heels.

She stalks up to the stairs leading to the club, outwardly undeterred when she is stopped by two Asian men outside the entrance.

"Oh c'mon boys, my boyfriend is waiting. He's player. If I don't go inside he will lose. I'm his lucky charm, you know?" Beckett begins, using her accent once more. She can't help but feel some panic when they make no move to let her in. She has to get inside that club. If Castle gets hurt, or killed, on her watch during one of her investigations, she'll never be able to forgive herself. She won't survive another wound like that.

Whist inwardly panicking, she shows nothing of her feelings in her outward appearance.

"No? Well maybe I can be a lucky charm for you." She offers, taking a step closer to the nearest guard and watching with satisfaction as his eyes drop to her chest, taking in the view offered by her widely gaping coat and lack of shirt underneath.

"We win, and when I'm there we always win, then maybe I can share some of my boyfriend's luck with you."

The two men share a look with one another before stepping aside to allow her to pass.

Beckett enters the club only to find the table that Castle had been seated at devoid of both their writer and their suspect.

It takes all of her self-control to keep from running as she hurriedly searches the room and then heads for the back. It's the only possible way they could have gone.

Her hunch pays out. She enters the kitchen just in time to hear the man confess to having murdered their suspect, and planning to do the same to Castle.

"No, no, I'm just a writer." Castle continues to protest his innocence but the man is having none of it.

"Do not lie, you a cop."

It's at this moment that Beckett sees her chance.

"Him a cop?" She calls out from across the room. "Don't make me laugh, he is barely a man!" She scoffs while walking confidently forward.

"Beckett?!" Castle chokes out, taking in her outfit, or lack thereof.

She shoots him a warning look before focusing her attention on the murderer who currently had a gun to the writer's side.

"But you're a man aren't you? Very handsome man." She flirted, pushing her chest up against him and speaking with the thickest Russian accent she could muster. "Richard, are you bothering this _handsome_ man?"

"Go away" the man replied, brushing her aside. Stupid as it is, she actually felt a sting of rejection by the man's easy disinterest. Wow, Castle really had done a number on her hadn't he?

"Okay!" She exclaimed, "Boys and their guns, am I supposed to be impressed?"

"It doesn't concern you" the man insisted.

"Actually," she spoke, losing her accent in an instant and reached out with lightning speed to grab the Russian's wrist and using her momentum to force his hand towards himself so that his own gun landed against his nose with force. While he instinctively hunched forward, she wrenched the arm she still held behind him and used her other arm to hold him down against the table in front of them. "it does" she finished her statement as she pulled the gun from his hand and held it to the back of his head.

"Is it my imagination or did you change?" Castle asked, Beckett unable to ignore the heat of his gaze as she felt it rake over her nearly bared body.

"Castle, would you get some backup please?" she asked, nothing of her kind request in her tone as she refused to acknowledge his question.

He stood a moment longer, staring at her ass where the already indecently short skirt of her jacket had ridden up to reveal her panty clad rear made all the more enticing by her being bent over holding the perp in place.

Eventually the writer managed to shake himself out of his lust and scrambled to leave and meet Ryan and Esposito as the boys were walking up the stairs. How they got in he'd never know but he wasn't going to stop to ask when there was a half-naked Kate Beckett holding a murderer next door.

The group managed to get out the back door unscathed. Beckett locked the boys out of the van while she redressed before they took the man back to the precinct to get an official confession and arrest.

"So I'll see you guys later then?" Beckett clarified with Ryan and Esposito before sitting at her chair to finish up some last minute paperwork. Unsurprisingly Castle appeared moments later and sat down in the chair beside her desk. No, it's no longer his chair she reminds herself.

She can only handle a couple minutes of silence before speaking up, surprising herself with being the first one to break.

"The case is closed. I guess that means your Cosmo story gets a happy ending."

"Speaking of happy endings, thanks for saving my life."

"Oh, I was just trying to avoid the paperwork" Beckett deflected, motioning to the papers in front of her.

He studied her for a moment. Scrutinized is more like it causing the little hairs on the back of her neck to stand up in an odd sense of foreboding that she'd never felt about the man before.

"It's because you're afraid, isn't it?" Castle asked, going on without waiting for a reply, "You're afraid that if you look into your mother's death you'll go back down that rabbit hole and lose yourself again. But it's different this time," he implored, "We have leads. Strong leads. And you won't have to do it alone. We can do it together."

Beckett looked back at him, somewhat disbelieving of how brazen he is being. The man she thought she knew would have known better than to push her in this. In fact, the only place she allows anyone to take charge of her life is in bed, and even that is pretty rare.

"What if I don't want to know?" she counters, drawing in a shaky breath, "Did you ever think of that? What if I'm not ready? What if the thought of catching my mother's murderer and then having to sit there and watch as he cuts a deal that puts him back on the street in ten years makes me nauseous." Castle has gone quiet and deathly still. Good, it means she's getting through to him.

"You dredged up my past for you Castle. Not for me. And the worst part of it is that you're too selfish to even see it. The case is closed Castle. Now we made a deal, and I expect you to honor it."

He gives her one, final, sad look before getting to his feet and walking out of the precinct without a second glance.

Beckett shoves any and all thoughts or feelings she has for the man to the dark recesses of her mind as she focuses all of her attention on the paperwork on her desk. The sooner she finishes all of it the sooner she can go home and work out her frustration with Ryan and Esposito. They had even managed to convince Lanie to join them so they could get together that night. The boys both ready to go after having seen her arresting someone twice her size nearly naked, and Beckett needing simply to have a distraction. Something to make her forget just how miserable of a day she'd had.

Yes, she would go home and meet up with her team; the people she knew she could trust. And in the process, she'd forget all about one Richard Castle for good.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: See, I promised I'd start updating on a regular again! Don't get too used to daily updates though, that won't be a thing forever :P Anyways, this chapter is one that's been long awaited whether by those of you who are ready for this story to diverge from canon or for those of you who are simply here for the smut. Either way this should appease you all. One last thing, please to everyone who reads this story, I need to know what you like or dislike. I'm really not sure what the reception to this is right now and if you aren't liking it, I need to know what needs fixed. If you like certain parts, I need to know what they are so I can learn from them and make it better in later chapters. I'm asking you to help me improve this story, and improve my writing, but I can't do it without your input. **

* * *

After her latest encounter with Castle, Beckett couldn't wait another moment to leave the precinct and get together with her team. To reaffirm that there were in fact people who cared about her and whom she could trust with her life and with her trust.

She texted Ryan and Esposito as she rode the elevator down to the parking garage beneath the precinct and placed a quick call to Lanie, letting the entire group know that she was on the way home and that they should meet her there. Everyone seemed just as ready as she was for a get-together. It had been a long couple weeks without her favorite group of people, really, her family in a sense. She wouldn't delve to far into that thought tonight though, considering just what was about to happen with her 'family'.

If she could manage to get home that is.

Despite the late hour, traffic couldn't move fast enough for Beckett and it took all of her self-control not to flip on her siren to get herself home faster. As it was, when she arrived at the front door she found Esposito and Lanie both waiting for her in the hall outside. Any guilt or resentment she may have felt at making them wait disappeared when she saw the heat in Esposito's eyes as he eyed her up and down, no doubt remembering her outfit earlier in the night and her promise to speak Russian if they behaved.

The pair rushed in behind her as Beckett unlocked her front door, Lanie pushed right up against her back. The two women couldn't even wait to make it to the bedroom before Lanie grabbed Beckett by the shoulder and spun her around so that they were face to face.

Esposito just watched for a moment as Beckett stripped off his girlfriend's shirt and pulled one of her sumptuous breasts from the cup of her bra and began licking and sucking at the darkened flesh.

Beckett nipped and licked over her friend's cleavage before latching onto her nipple, rolling her tongue around it and then sucking hard enough to hollow out her cheeks.

Lanie moaned obscenely and held her friend's head to her breast.

A knock at the door didn't even register with the two women so it was Esposito who opened it and quickly ushered in his partner who also stopped to watch the two women in action.

The men's pause didn't last long as Ryan approached Beckett from behind and plastered his body against her back.

Without disrupting her, he reached around the dark haired detective and easily unbuttoned her pants before peeling them down her mile long legs so that she could step out of them and leave them in a pile on the floor. Not moving back an inch, the Irishman proceeded to slip his fingers down the front of her panties and reveled in the slick arousal he found there.

Finally getting into the game, Esposito moved around the trio to help his girlfriend out of her own pants and panties before kneeling to the ground and inhaling the scent of her arousal.

By this time, both women had removed each other's tops and bras, leaving them naked while the men were fully dressed.

The problem was soon rectified when Ryan used his free hand to undo his own fly and shove his pants and boxers down his legs to join Beckett's in a puddle of clothing at their feet.

Beckett couldn't hold back a groan as Ryan entered her with two fingers and began to piston them in and out of her body, roughly scraping the pads of his fingers over her g-spot.

She continued to work Lanie's breasts with her hands and lips while Esposito ran his long, talented tongue through the other woman's folds.

Unable to wait any longer, Beckett finally abandoned her friend and partner to their own devices as she reached behind her and grabbed Ryan, pulling the younger man along behind her until she found the couch.

She readily grabbed a condom out of the small drawer in the table in front of her couch and handed it back to him before planting her hands on the cushion of the couch and bending herself over the arm of it in invitation. One which he would never deny.

Ryan easily sheathed himself with the condom and approached his boss from behind, caressing and framing her curves appreciatively with his hands until she wriggled her hips impatiently and spread her legs wider apart to give him easier access to where she wanted him.

Ryan chuckled easily as he watched the unashamed wantonness of the woman before him. He wouldn't keep her waiting for long, more than happy to give her what she wanted when he stepped into the welcome cradle of her body and pressed his manhood to her entrance.

He held himself with one hand and grabbed Beckett's hip with the other to hold her still and then snapped his hips forward to slide into her in one sharp thrust.

Beckett groaned out her appreciation and pressed her ass backwards against him to ensure that he was fully seated inside of her. This was just what she had needed. A good hard fuck to help her work out her pain and frustration with the people whom she trusted most in the world.

She felt the hard slide of Ryan's length as he wasted no time in sliding nearly out of her and thrusting in again, setting up a quick rhythm that she helped him keep by meeting each of his thrusts with the backwards press of her hips.

Her mind cleared enough to wonder what had become of the other two and when she looked up, Beckett smiled to see Esposito and Lanie in a matching position to her and Ryan on the other end of the couch. It looked like none of them would be making it to the bed any time soon.

"Fuck, Ryan." She cried out when he graced her with a particularly sharp thrust and was rewarded with another and another until without warning the tight coil that had built within her all day burst in a spectacular orgasm that had Beckett seeing stars.

Ryan grit his teeth and used all the willpower he had available to continue pistoning his hips back and forth, in and out while managing to stave off his own release.

Beckett's shuddering eventually slowed and then stopped as she lay collapse against the arm of the couch, breathing heavily.

She opened her eyes in time to see both Lanie and Esposito climaxing together and couldn't help but smile at the looks of ecstasy on her friends faces.

The loose fluidity of her post orgasmic muscles was wiped away when her entire body stiffened in shock when she felt the man behind her move and realized that Ryan was still buried deep inside of her and hadn't finished with the rest of them.

Her grin took on a wicked glint and she pushed backwards against her partner and away from the couch until he got the hint and pulled back, leaving her feeling terribly empty. A situation which had to be fixed. Immediately.

"On the ground Ryan." Beckett instructed, and watched as her partner quickly complied with her demands.

The moment he was settled on the floor she was crouching over him and impaling herself on his length.

This time it was Ryan's turn to let loose a groan of appreciation as his length was encompassed by the tight heat of Beckett's body.

The two made eye contact as Beckett began to move her hips around in a circle, unable to keep herself from teasing her younger partner. He smirked at her, knowing exactly what she was doing, and reached up to take a hold of her left breast, pinching and rolling her nipple between his fingers.

Beckett's eyes rolled back in her head and she began to move in earnest, her body still tightly wound and sensitive from her last orgasm.

The group didn't even notice the first knock when it came against the front door.

Esposito and Lanie were watching the other two go, and of course Beckett and Ryan were engrossed in their own activities as they climbed ever higher and closer to a mutual release.

The second, louder knock was enough to catch Beckett's attention and she stopped moving over the blonde detective's body, causing the man's eyes to pop open in disappointment and confusion.

"Did anyone hear-" her question was cut off by a third knock.

"Shit, everyone, in the bedroom!" Beckett ordered in a loud whisper as she took panicked glance at the door. She didn't know who could possibly be at her apartment, but there was no way it could be good. What they were doing was against more than one regulation and was nothing that anyone else could ever find out about.

She quickly threw on her shirt and slacks and ensured that everyone else was out of eyesight of the door before answering it to a fourth impatient pounding.

She came up short thought when she realized who it was on the other side of the threshold.

"Castle?!" Beckett asked, shock coloring her tone.

"Beckett?" he asked, as if surprised to find her in her own home. It wasn't until she noticed where his gaze was directed that she noticed her thin shirt did a poor job of covering her arousal and the sharp points of her nipples were clearly visible through the thin material.

The writer's eyes widened even further as he took in her tousled appearance and a quick glance revealed to him a woman's bra in the entryway behind her, one which was entirely too big to be Beckett's.

"Am I interrupting?" he asked, a hint of a smirk coloring his tone even as his blue eyes darkened in arousal.

"Castle, what do you want?" Beckett replied, knowing that they had been caught but refusing to back down.

It was at this point that he seemed to realize just where they actually were and he looked down at his shuffling feet before glancing back up with her, a much more serious look now in his eyes, and he took a deep breath.

"I'm sorry, what I did was wrong." he began, nearly causing Beckett to take a step backwards in shock, "I violated your trust. I opened old wounds and I did not respect your wishes. And if you don't want to see me again, then you deserve to know that I am very, very sorry."

Beckett could do nothing but stare at him. She was shocked to say the least. Everything around her seemed surreal. There was no way that in the middle of riding Ryan with Lanie and Esposito looking on, Castle had come to her door simply to apologize. This just couldn't be happening. She didn't know what to do.

Castle's entire body seemed to droop and he gave her a nod, as if in understanding, before turning and beginning back down the hallway.

Oh God, oh God what should she do? He had hurt her, that was undeniable, but now here was that same man. That same selfish playboy, not asking her for anything. He was simply admitting that he had been wrong and that he was genuinely sorry, and now he was leaving.

"Castle!" she called before he could reach the elevator that would take him out of her life for good.

He turned back towards her, unable to extinguish the hope that had blossomed in his eyes.

"I'll see you tomorrow." She spoke, deliberate despite her confusion. She couldn't let him out of her life now. He had been one of the few bright spots in it the last year and she couldn't bear to let him leave. Especially not now that he'd proven he could in fact be responsible for his actions; to be an adult. At the same time though she was making her stand. She was making it clear that although he was welcome back at the precinct, her inner sanctum was a different story altogether. The fact that she wasn't inviting him inside to join the rest of the group that they both knew was waiting for her spoke volumes. He may be allowed back at the precinct, but he wasn't welcome back into the fold. Not now, and maybe not ever.

The easy smile he gave her in return before he boarded the elevator was all the reply he needed. He'd accepted her terms. Whether that would remain true or not was yet to be seen.

Beckett shut the door firmly behind her and had to lean against the solid wood for support. What had she just done?

In somewhat of a daze, she made her way back to the bedroom where the other three were still waiting for her.

They didn't even have to ask who had been at the door. They'd heard the entire conversation.

The scene inside her bedroom was almost comical. Two detectives and an ME sat watching her with wide eyes, one of which still had a raging erection proudly springing from between his legs.

"Oh, Ryan" Beckett spoke softly, feeling bad for leaving the man hanging even if there had been little she could've done to prevent it.

Beckett approached the trio on her bed, but surprised them all when she first approached Esposito and took his length in her hands.

She made a loose fist around him and began to slide it up and down, feeling him quickly coming to life within her grasp. She paused her ministrations for a moment to grab a bottle of lube from her bedside table and handed it to Espo. He didn't need any further instructions, squeezing some out onto his hand and motioning for his partner to join them.

Beckett ensured that Esposito was fully hard and ready to go while the man readied his partner. Once she had determined that both men were well prepared she stood back and watched while Espo laid on his back and Ryan sank down onto him so that they were laying front to back, as if spooning whilst on their backs.

When both men were situated, Beckett climbed on with them and took Ryan's manhood in hand. Holding him steady so she could envelop him once more.

Then all three detectives began to move in unison, Esposito thrusting inside of Ryan from below and Beckett riding him from above.

Lanie was content to watch the group for all of thirty seconds before seeming to decide that she too needed in on the action and crawled forward to join them.

She kneeled over Ryan's body so that her ample breasts were hanging in the Irishman's face and her ass and spread legs were presented to her best friend.

Beckett took the invitation for what it was and leaned forward to taste her friend's tart arousal.

She continued to bounce and grind on Ryan, constantly moving her hips, while holding on to her friend's hips to keep the woman stable so she could run her tongue through Lanie's folds, bringing in a mouthful of her juices.

The four were knotted together in one big pile, Esposito fucking Ryan who in turn was fucking Beckett and licking and sucking at Lanie's bouncing breasts, and Beckett was helping her friend along by sucking her clit into her mouth and sliding two, then three fingers inside of her welcoming warmth.

Anyone observing from the outside would have to wonder how it worked out so well, how four very different people were able to come up with a common movement and rhythm, but for the group from the twelfth, it worked wonders.

Beckett was the first to cum, crying out her release into Lanie snatch and tightening like a vice around Ryan's arousal. The Irishman quickly followed her over the edge, unable to ride out another of her orgasms as his body shook wildely and then snapped taught while he emptied himself inside of her.

Once Beckett had come down from the peak enough to control her limbs once more, she added a third finger to her ministrations on the ME and lightly bit down on her clit. That was all it took for the dark skinned woman to completely lose control.

Esposito had a little more stamina than his male partner since he'd already finished once, but he wasn't immune to the sight, sounds, and movement of three people in the throes of ecstasy above him and followed not long after them.

They all collapsed onto one another, breathing heavily until the weight and heat became unbearable and they had to separate to different portions of the bed to recover.

About five minutes later they dispatched to the bathroom to dispose of condoms and clean themselves up.

Beckett lounged in her bed, grateful that they were at her place that night so she didn't have to dress with the rest of the group who needed to go home for the remainder of the night so they could be changed into new clothes before work the next day.

They really needed to start keeping spare outfits at each other's places, Beckett decided, so that they didn't have to worry about going home when they had to work the next morning.

Despite her best efforts, thoughts of Castle began to creep into her consciousness. She couldn't help but wonder what it would have been like if she had invited him in tonight. What would it have been like with a fifth person involved? She remembered all too well the feel of his body over, under, inside of her.

No, he had asked for forgiveness and she'd granted it. He had earned the right to return to the precinct, but that was all. He hadn't earned the right to join their inner sanctum again, and to be honest, she wasn't sure that he ever would.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: So yay another chapter. Not quite as quick of a turnaround as I would've hoped, and I'm sure not as fast as my faithful readers had hoped either but what can I say, I'm easily distracted. I am at least forcing myself to finish this one before I so much as begin the next extended length story that's been floating around in my head. So moral of the story is, it may be slow going but I'll never abandon this story, but for now enjoy the next chapter :)**

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Beckett groaned and burrowed deeper into her bed when the first tones of her alarm started up the next morning. Without even cracking open her eyelids she flopped an arm across the bed towards the opposite nightstand where her phone was blaring out its unwelcome sound.

She blearily opened her eyes once the search for the device proved fruitless and forced herself into an upright position. As much as she enjoyed the time spent with her team outside the precinct, this morning all she wanted was to curl back under her comforter and sleep for several more hours.

Alas, her wish wasn't to be and it was with a heavy sigh that she finally shut off the alarm and threw back the covers before making her way towards the bathroom.

A quick shower later that had done little to wake her up, Beckett is finally relishing in the heat of her first sip of coffee as it washes over her tongue. Immediately she feels more awake and alert. Ready to face the day before her.

A day of paperwork. A tiny voice in the back of her head reminds, one which she immediately pushes away as she finishes putting the final touches on her hair and make-up before downing the last dregs of coffee and donning heels, badge, and gun.

Morning routine complete she is now Detective Beckett and she's ready to face the world. Or, in this case, a morning spent copying down every step they'd taken to close the last case followed by an afternoon spent pouring over cold cases. Delightful.

It wasn't until she was seated at her desk in the precinct ready for her second cup of coffee that she realized a paperwork day meant no Castle. She'd have to get her own coffee but it gave her some time to collect herself before she had to see him again. Time to decompress and figure out exactly what the hell had happened last night.

She'd gone from a night spent with her favorite team in part to forget the writer to allowing him back into the precinct indefinitely in two seconds flat. Not that she regretted allowing him back at work. He was surprisingly helpful at times, not to mention keeping her caffeinated, and his apology had been heartfelt. Besides, despite their act on her behalf over the last couple days, the boys really had missed the man as well.

A yawn split through her and reminded Beckett that she was responsible for her own coffee without her shadow around to provide for her addiction and she made her way to the breakroom to fight with the espresso machine Castle had bought.

It wasn't much later when the boys arrived, also looking hazard and trying to stifle yawns behind their hands. Perhaps getting together on a school night hadn't been the best idea she'd ever had but she was sure none of them had regretted the time spent together, even if it meant a couple extra coffees were required the next day.

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Two more days passed in silence and paperwork. No bodies had dropped and Beckett had even caught up on sleep. It was shaping up to be a really good week, even if a little dull.

It was the afternoon of the third day, as she scanned through a cold case that the familiar ding of the elevator caused Beckett to look up from the paperwork before her. A cop instinct that insisted she know who was arriving on the homicide floor at any time.

"Castle?" she asked, equal parts annoyance and confusion suffusing her tone. "What are you doing here?"

The man in question shuffled his feet a little, his gaze drawn strangely to them as he muttered, "I thought I'd make sure you didn't have a case and just hadn't called me. It's been days and, well, it seemed strange that no one had been, you know, murdered."

An exasperated sigh made it through Beckett's parted lips.

"There aren't any new cases Castle. Haven't been since the mob case." She swung her arm in a curve before her, as if to encompass the empty murder board beside her desk.

"Besides, I told you that you were allowed to shadow me again. Did you really think I would say something like that and not mean it?"

Castle wilted under the glare she pinned him with, still not looking up from the scuff mark at the tip of one shoe.

"Well, I, uh- Hey, what's that?!" he asks, blue eyes lighting up as something across the bullpen caught his attention. Beckett would've sworn under oath that the man could be as easily distracted as a child, or a puppy. Yeah, a puppy was a good comparison for Castle. Neither one was particularly well trained

"Is that a clown?" he squealed and she worked hard to contain the eye-roll that was just begging to come to fruition.

"Castle, what-"

But then he was gone, off to the break room muttering something about full moons and popcorn. Beckett shook her head in frustration and- no that wasn't fond amusement- that was all annoyance, and took to her seat once more to continue pouring over the casefile.

No one particularly enjoyed looking through old cases in the mere hopes of finding a clue that someone else may have missed, but it was a part of the job, one which Kate Beckett took more seriously than most. She always took it upon herself to speak for the victims, but she couldn't help but feel a certain responsibility to these dead end cases, ones like her mom's that had never been solved, had been cast to the wayside and given up on. Beckett knew how much it tore at you, the questions and uncertainty that came when a loved one was killed and no one knew the answers, or perhaps just didn't care to look for them. She had made it her mission in life never to be one of the cops who just didn't care, and took it upon herself to not treat these cold cases as if she were wasting her time on a lost cause as many detectives did.

Lost in her musings, she almost missed it when Castle sat down in his chair beside her desk, bowl of popcorn in hand.

Deciding that asking him once more why he was there was, unlike looking through these case files, a waste of her time, Beckett buried herself in the work. A task she excelled at unlike any other.

The precinct proceeded to become busier, with detectives from other divisions making use of their offices and interrogation rooms when their own became too crowded. Castle continued to watch, gleeful as a little boy at a monster truck derby, content just to watch the mayhem and destruction before him.

The bullpen had become a zoo, full of indignant hookers and costumed men yelling, running, and fighting, cops interspersed among them trying to control the horde.

"What is it about full moons that bring out the crazies?" Castle muses, speaking for the first time in half an hour and startling Beckett from her reading.

"I don't know. You tell me?" She responds with a smirk, unable to prevent drawing parallels between the screaming mob around her and the writer who just 'happened' to show up tonight and hang around for an evening of paperwork.

With a scream, a topless woman landed across her desk, scattering the paperwork in the file she'd been reviewing and Beckett couldn't help but notice with grim amusement that Castle was unable to take his eyes off the heaving breasts of the woman before them covered only in a hot pink lace bra.

Men, she scoffed to herself, turning instead towards the only other female detective on the twelfth's homicide squad. "Hey Karpowski, how's it goin'?"

"Oh, you know, same old same old." The other woman responded with a nonchalant shrug, "what about you Beckett?"

"Eh, I can't complain." She answered honestly watching as the other woman hauled the hooker off her desk and dragged her back to the other side of the bullpen.

Beckett bent to retrieve the papers that had fallen from her desk and began reorganizing them, intent on resuming where she had left off when the man to her right spoke up once more,

"You guys should really sell tickets," he began, shoveling a few more pieces of popcorn into his mouth and looking around the bullpen once more. 'Oh here we go' she thinks to herself, wondering what gem of wisdom is about to be bestowed upon her by their resident writer. "I mean, you've got everything; madness, mayhem, now all you need is-"

But before he can finish his sentence he's cut off by the ring of a telephone, Beckett's phone to be exact. Her eyes shoot to his. No. There's no way he could possibly have predicted-

"Beckett" she answered finally. Oh he did! The man was uncanny, she'd give him that, Beckett contemplated as she copied down the address dispatch rattled off.

"Well Castle," she began after hanging up, "you've got convenient timing." She concedes, the man before her pumping his fist in victory at her confirmation that there was in fact a murder scene they were wanted at.

"Ooh, or maybe I committed the crime and I'm just here to make sure you can't catch me. Did you ever think of that Beckett?" he called, trailing after her as she grabbed her things and headed towards the elevator.

"Ha! Yeah, right Castle" she scoffed, not even turning to look at him.

"Hey, it could happen!" he argued back.

"Well Castle, after all this time writing murder mysteries and, you know, working with the cops, I'd hope you would have enough sense to at least properly dispose of the body."

"You know Detective, I think you just paid me a compliment." The writer crowed, a grin spread across his face, blue eyes twinkling.

Beckett just rolled her eyes, refusing to show that he'd gotten under her skin. That was so not meant to be a compliment.

Phone calls to Ryan and Esposito who'd had the day off and a quick drive to the scene later reveals that their murder victim is a woman, Ashley Cosway, a 32 year old couple's therapist.

"You know, if this was one of those super-sciencey forensics shows they'd be able to put electrodes in these fish's brains. Get a fish-eyes view of whatever they saw." Castle commented, walking around the apartment and coming to a halt at the nearby fish tank.

"Really Castle?" she scoffed, turning to give him a look over her shoulder.

He instantly straightened up from where he'd been tapping on the glass. Good to know that she was still able to strike some kind of fear into the man, even if it wasn't quite the same as when she'd been able to threaten him with a lack of sexual favors the next time everyone was together. Ah well, this would have to work instead.

Or not. Apparently it wasn't her that had caused Castle to straighten up, but instead the arrival of another woman.

A quick glance towards the door when the sound of heels clicking on a hardwood floor caught her attention showed Lanie arriving in a skin-tight magenta excuse for a dress.

"Dr. Parrish, when did the change the dresscode downtown?" Beckett teased, eyeing her friend up and down, feeling her own mouth begin to water at the sight before her.

"Well, unlike you, I don't sit around all night waiting for the next vic to show." The ME fired back catching her eye with a wink and not even looking up before barking, "Quit lookin' at the girls Castle!"

"Roger that." He answers quickly, turning away from temptation. Not that Beckett could blame the man for looking. Lanie was definitely gifted in the endowment department.

"I'll have you know I was actually working when the call came in." Beckett defended, unwilling to let the other woman get in the last dig.

"Mhmm and just how much overtime do you have racked up just this week Kate Beckett? You and I both know you could've taken the night off if you'd wanted to."

"What do we have?" Beckett asked, completely changing tracts knowing she'd been beat.

"Multiple GSWs, looks to be a small caliber" Lanie answered, letting her off the hook.

Homing in on the body before her, Beckett begins to look a little closer at the crime scene" now that she's done an initial sweep of the entire area.

"Psycho the rapist? You're out of time?" she murmured more to herself than anything, not really expecting anyone else to have an answer to the questions swirling in her mind.

"Looks like a patient lost their patience." Surprisingly the quip didn't come from Castle this time, but from the ME examining the body beside her.

"Also his command of grammar," the writer jumped in, Beckett looking to her friend and telegraphing 'this is all your fault' with every fiber of her being, "Your should be 'you' apostrophe 'r' 'e' as in 'you are'."

"Castle-"

"I mean, that isn't even a tough one like when to use 'who' or 'whom'."

"Do you really think that's the takeaway here?"

"I'm just saying, whoever murdered her also murdered the English language."

A deep suffering sigh was the only other answer he received, Beckett instead opting to turn to Lanie once more.

"Any signs of a struggle?"

"Bruises on both arms" the ME confirms, nodding her agreement when Beckett reminds her to double check for any fibers or DNA left behind. As if she wasn't going to do that anyways but the brunette detective was wound tightly enough without her adding to it.

"Castle!" she heard Lanie snap once more, catching a glimpse of the writer obviously staring at Lanie's generous bosom once more.

"Girl didn't you teach those boys any manners at all?" she called after Beckett as she walked away.

"I thought Esposito was your problem Dr. Parrish" she reminds in a sing-song voice.

"It's not my fault they're just _there_" Castle mutters in reply behind her.

Beckett quickly wipes the smirk from her face when she finally approaches the husband of the deceased woman. According to the boys he had been the one to find the body after returning home from a basketball game earlier in the night. He didn't know anything about what his wife had been doing, or who she'd appeared to have eaten supper with earlier in the night.

Another meaningless conversation with the husband that just reaffirmed what she'd already been told by the boys was interrupted by Esposito flagging her down from across the room.

"Thank you Mr. Cosway." She murmured, signifying the end of her interview before making her way through the crowd of CSU techs and uniforms combing the house for any evidence that may have been left behind.

"We've got another." Esposito informed her once she'd arrived in front of him, "A pop-and-drop on 102nd."

"Full moon strikes again."

It was about that time that Beckett wished that she'd never allowed Castle back into the precinct in the first place. _So much for a quiet week_. She lamented to herself.

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**Any and all feedback is very welcome!**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Look everyone, it's another update much faster than the rest have been, and even quite a lot longer! A big thanks goes out to RoninBlackwing as well for without them this chapter would have been much longer in coming as well as the next chapter or two. I think I managed to individually thank everyone that was logged in to review the last chapter, but I also want to thank everyone who left some feed back whether constructive criticism or love for the story who did so anonymously. For those few of you who think this story is disgusting, I promise I'm not making you read it. The majority of you though are awesome and I hope you enjoy this next installment!**

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Nearly an hour later, after they've spoken with the crime scene techs, promised to keep the husband in the loop, and driven back to the precinct to begin setting up the murder board, Castle is still complaining about the lack of proper grammar shown by the murderer when writing upon the deceased's body.

Beckett blows out a breath and pinches the bridge of her nose between index finger and thumb, trying desperately to hold onto her patience and ignore the man repeating himself for the seventh time.

"So how do you not make sure that you are using the proper language to make that point?" he asks finally sitting down form where he'd been pacing beside her desk.

Unable to take his diatribe a moment longer she summons her energy to attempt to stop him when the arrival of Ryan and Esposito do so for her. She'll have to remember to give them a special treat later on for saving her.

"Frank Anderson, retired middle school math teacher from I.S. 161. You want in?" Ryan calls across the bullpen as they approach her desk.

Beckett raises an amused eyebrow at them, does she really look like she can take on another case on top of handling Castle?

"Uh, no, thanks. Full up." she replies instead, saved from having to say anything further by the ringing of her cellphone.

An unknown number flashes on the screen of her phone as she steps away from the boys, barely noting Castle moving over to a different pair of desks, doubtless wondering about the other murder that had occurred during a full moon.

"Beckett"

"Detective we've traced the credit card number from that receipt you asked us to run and it came back as a Ms. Brandy Rossi." The tech on the other end of the line informed her.

Beckett quickly jotted down the name as well as the address of the woman in question and thanked the man before hanging up and turning back to where the boys were all huddled in a tight circle. What on earth could they be up to?

No matter, it was late and she was tired. Interviewing this Rossi woman could wait until morning, now it was time to wrap up this case and partake in a nice bubble bath.

"Castle" she called, noting the way the writer jumped guiltily in his seat at the sound of his name. Or at least the sound of _her_ saying his name.

"If you want to stay and work with the guys you can, but I'm heading home and I suggest you three do the same." With a nod encompassing the two detectives as well.

She can't help but sag into the seat of her cruiser when she makes it down to the underground garage. So much for being relaxed and having caught up on sleep. She had forgotten just how exhausting a day with Castle could be. How had she possibly spent her nights with the man as well?

The late hour provides for a quick drive to her favorite take-out restaurant for an easy supper and an equally fast ride the rest of the way home.

Safely ensconced in her own home, Beckett changes out of her leather jacket and boots and into yoga pants and a t-shirt that is two sizes too big before settling down on her couch to eat the food she'd grabbed on the way.

Her body's physical needs being satisfied means that she can now turn her attention to other, more pleasurable activities.

A smile graces her lips as the woman makes her way to her bathroom and opens the faucets so that the water gushing out is at the perfect temperature; hot, but not so hot that it burns. Instead, just enough to relax her tightened muscles when she slips into the water's warm embrace.

Satisfied that the old claw-footed tub is filling, she turns her attention to the candles placed throughout the room and begins lighting them one-by-one.

When the candles have all been lit, Beckett flicks the switch to shut off the overhead light to the bathroom, instead casting the formerly stark white room in a golden ethereal glow.

She easily shucks off the t-shirt, leaving it to pool in a pile on the cold tile floor where it is soon joined by the yoga pants she peals down her legs and the simple, utilitarian panties that she'd put on when she had changed earlier; her bra already discarded in the bedroom an unnecessary accoutrement when she was at home alone.

Beckett sighs when she slips into the deep water, wishing she had poured some of her lilac scented bath salts in, but feeling the relaxing effects of the water nonetheless. The water encompasses her body, gliding over her curves in waves as soft and welcoming as silk.

Her nipples harden into tight peaks in the cool air of her apartment as they rise past the waterline, her breasts buoyed despite their compact size.

She sucks in a breath when a small shift causes the water to roll gently within the tub, caressing her skin and lapping at her sensitive pink buds.

A small hand creeps towards her inner thigh, trailing across her stomach and the crease of her leg, fingers making small, barely there touches as it goes. She teases herself, one hand drawing nonsense patterns on her abdomen and thigh while the other trips upwards towards her breasts.

Her arousal heightens as she pinches a nipple between finger and thumb, rolling it gently until her legs fall open and she releases a shuddering sigh.

She jerks hard when fingers make contact with flesh that's a very different kind of wet, easily parting her folds and slipping into the welcoming heat that is found there. The movement causing the water to roll dangerously in the already overfilled tub.

When she presses a single finger into herself, she can't contain a jerk of her hips. This time enough to make water spill over the sides of the bath.

On a sigh, she removes her hands, not wanting to create a mess for herself by overflowing the bath and soaking her floor.

She stands shakily and steps from the tub into the waiting arms of a towel placed conveniently nearby. Not bothering to unplug the drain or blow out the candles quite yet, Beckett takes the few steps into her bedroom and collapses inelegantly on the bed.

One hand delves into the bedside table whilst the other takes up a dance across her rapidly cooling skin. Her chest flushed from a combination of arousal and remnant heat from bathing.

Easily finding that which she seeks, the hand emerges with a comically bright purple dildo in its clutches.

Now sufficiently aroused, Beckett eagerly twists the base of the toy, causing it to spring to life in her grip, buzzing hungrily as she trails it down her body.

She teases herself for only a moment, running it up and down the juncture of her legs, gasping whenever the vibrations reach her swollen clit.

Letting her legs fall further open, she places the head of the toy at her entrance and pushes forwards slowly. Gently easing the generous length into her body before withdrawing it once more, she repeats the movement several times, pressing it deeper with each stroke.

She writhes and jerks underneath her own ministrations, the toy now buried fully inside of her. The obscene purple no longer visible amongst folds dripping with the evidence of her arousal.

Beckett thrusts the toy back and forth, quickly climbing towards release.

"Uhmm" she moans grinding down onto the faux cock within until she shatters spectacularly, her inner muscles clenching down on the hard plastic where she's left it deep in her inner channel.

Aftershocks claim her body for many minutes afterward, her body lithe and boneless against the sheets that are sticking to her sweat slicked body.

She finally withdraws the toy and wrenches herself from the bed to clean it and grab her clothing from the bathroom floor.

Teeth brushed and lotion on, she proceeds clothe her still oversensitive skin before falling into bed and into a deep, dreamless sleep that isn't interrupted until her alarm sounds the next morning.

* * *

Castle arrives at the precinct before she has even finished her first cup of coffee; along with him comes the incessant chatter the writer seems unable to go without.

Luckily for the both of them; both being her sanity and his physical wellbeing, their suspect arrives in a timely manner courtesy of the uniform who has escorted her to the precinct.

The three of them enter the interrogation room, Ms. Rossi proceeding the writer and detective who take partnering seats on the mirrored side of the table presenting a united front.

Beckett presents the woman with the receipt they'd found at the victim's apartment. The same receipt that matched the credit card numbers of the woman before them.

"I believe you've been informed of the death of Ashley Cosway?" Beckett began the questioning.

"That is correct." Ms. Rossi responded without visible emotion.

"And the numbers on this receipt match those of your credit card?"

"Yes Detective. That's my credit card. I had dinner with her last night. She's my best friend. When I left her there, she was alive."

"What time did you leave Ms. Rossi?"

"Around 7"

The interrogation continues although it's becoming more and more obvious that this woman is not their killer. Of course, if her alibi that she was at the Gansevoort bar after leaving her best friend's house turns out to be solid it will be a lot more clear. Instead, they're informed that Ashley Cosway had invited her best friend to dinner for more professional reasons than personal.

"She wanted to get a restraining order." The other woman finally revealed, becoming more distraught as the interview continued. "She wouldn't say who! God, I should have stayed with her. I shouldn't have let her off the hook!"

Having decided there was nothing more Brandy Rossi could tell them, Beckett thanked the blond for her time and sent her home with her business card.

They now knew that something had happened Friday while their victim was at work, something bad enough for her to have wanted a restraining order. Now they had something to work off of.

The first step was to call the vic's husband and see if his wife had said anything to him about what had occurred. Unfortunately he didn't even know there had been an altercation, let alone who else had been involved.

"Looks like Ashley took her oath seriously," Beckett observed aloud as she hung up the phone, "Her husband had no idea that something bad happened Friday."

"Doctor/Patient privilege is supposed to protect people, not get them killed." Castle concurs.

It soon becomes apparent that both the friend and husband have solid alibi's which leaves Friday's patient as their new prime suspect. But first, coffee.

She watches Ryan and Esposito escorting what must be their victim's family from the interview room as she walks through the precinct to the break room. Somewhere along the way losing Castle and without her shadow there to work the expensive espresso machine he'd bought she opts for coffee from the carafe sitting silently on its hotplate.

Leaving the breakroom, she comes to a halt, watching with amusement as Castle prances towards her singing something about a restraining order. What is going on with these guys lately? Her amusement comes to an abrupt halt when he nearly runs into her and spills her coffee, although she can't suppress a smirk when realization that he's been caught crashes visibly into the man in question.

"Hey" he answers quickly taking a step back.

"Hey" she responds, giving him a suspicious once-over.

"I was just- um, they were-" he stutters turning towards the other two men as if expecting them to help him "there was two…"

"Yeah" she says her point having been made as evidenced by his desperate search for a plausible excuse.

Karpowski is actually the one to come to the writer's rescue. She'd found out who Dr. Cosway had seen on Friday afternoon and potentially who she'd wanted a restraining order against.

The boys gather their jackets and follow shortly behind them towards the elevator until Caste leans forwards and presses the button to shut the door just before the two detectives can board the lift.

"Why'd you do that?" Beckett question, brows drawn as they hear Ryan yelling through the now thorouyoghly closed doors.

"Do what?"

"Don't play dumb with me Castle, why did you close the door on them?"

"Hm? Oh, I didn't realize they were following us."

Beckett scoffs in disbelief but having nothing further to go on gives up the line of questioning. She'll figure out what's going on sooner or later.

Castle remains quiet on the ride through the city, as if afraid that anything he says can and will be used against him. He's not wrong.

"Alright, I'm just gonna say it" he begins as if whatever thought that has just popped into his mind is something he's been mulling over for a while, "I've got a feeling. Doesn't happen often, but I'm feelin' it. This is our guy!"

An eye roll the only necessary response from Beckett as they enter the butcher shop owned by their suspect.

"Mr. Ross?" Beckett calls, eyeing the man on the other side of the counter who is currently slicing a side of beef with a very large cleaver in his hand.

"What's up? Garbage on my sidewalk again?" the man enquires before turning back to the ribs before him.

"Uh, would you mind putting that down?" she reminds the man, nodding to the knife he's still holding.

He complies, albeit unhappily, and follows them out of the store.

"Where were you between the hours of… uh, when was that again?" Castle begins, looking to Beckett for help. Ha! Better leave the interrogating to the trained professionals Castle.

Despite the writer's continued interruptions and attempts at questioning, they learn that the altercation had actually occurred at the appointment before that of Hal Ross and his wife. It was just too good to be true that the man with violent priors could be their murderer and this case could be wrapped up all nice and neat just like that.

"I got a feeling this isn't our guy" Castle sums up helpfully and then shutting his mouth quickly, wilting under the glare she bestows upon him.

Unfortunately Beckett can't help but agree with the man for once and thanks the butcher for his time before returning to the precinct, this time desperately reminding herself not to break Castle's fingers if he reaches for the radio dial one more time.

"Castle?!" she finally grits out through clenched teeth.

"What?" he asks, completely oblivious to her annoyance.

"If you touch that dial one more time you can get out of my car and walk home without even bothering to come back to the precinct. Got it?"

"Got it" he confirms, not in the slightest bit subdued by her attitude. Infuriating man.

Upon returning to the precinct, Beckett grabs a new coffee. Her former one having been abandoned on her desk when they left to interview Ross earlier.

A quick check of the victim's appointment book showed that the patient who saw Dr. Cosway before Hal Ross was one Evan Hinkle. Unwilling to abandon another coffee she sends a uniform out to collect Mr. Hinkle and bring him in a little chat.

It's not long before their new suspect is in the interrogation room and Beckett is sat before him, her notes prepared before her. But before she can begin questioning the man, Castle leans heavily onto the table, invading the man's personal space.

"For the record Mr. Hinkle, you are admitting that you were Dr. Cosways one o'clock appointment?"

What the hell Castle? What are you doing?

"I knew this would happen. I knew it. First time I met her I knew she would leave me. Why does this always happen, why do people keep leaving me?"

What is this guy going on about? She wonder, noting with satisfaction that at least Castle has sat down, even if he's not scrutinizing the man any less.

"She didn't leave you, Mr. Hinkle, she was murdered." Beckett chimes in, leaning forward now herself.

"Yeah. Just like my first wife." Wait, what?

"You're first wife was murdered?" Castle asked, the tone of disbelief in his voice mirror that of her own internal monologue.

"That's right. I smothered her to death." Their suspect confessed as Castle and Beckett share a look of triumph. They've just solved their case. You can bet on it.

"Yeah. That's what she told me. I murdered her with love. That's why she left." Or not…

"Just tell us about your last appointment with Dr. Cosway." Beckett jumps back in. Time to get this show back on the road.

As much as she was disappointed to learn that this man was not, in fact, likely to be their murderer, she was still surprised by how much Castle was silently fuming beside her. There was something going on here and she would get to the bottom of it. Maybe she'd have to ask the boys. She could usually intimidate at least Ryan into telling her the truth.

Hinkle's innocence becomes even more pronounced when he reveals that he hadn't seen the doctor last week. He had called to cancel because of a panic attack. One which had conveniently placed him in the ER, as if he actually needed his story to be corroborated.

The man was useful for something though, having revealed before he left that she hadn't charged him for cancelling last minute because Dr. Cosway was going to use the time to have lunch with her husband instead.

Bingo. And now they're back to the husband.

"What's with the super cop?" she questions Castle as soon as the door to interrogation 1 closes behind Hinkle.

"I have no idea what you're talking about?" Castle denies instantly. No less than she had expected really, although she's still frustrated that something is going on in her house and she doesn't know about it. What kind of detective is she if she can't uncover something that's going on right beneath her nose?

Back in the bullpen she calls the credit card company to confirm that the Cosway's had indeed had lunch together on Friday, but when she looks up from the tablet she'd been taking notes on, definitely not just doodling, she found Castle huddled together with Karpowski and one of the uniforms.

What the- As soon as they saw her looking at them the trio broke up and scattered.

"So what you got?" Castle asked immediately, seemingly unperturbed by her presence, unlike the other two who had nearly run to get away before she arrived.

"I just got a ping on Ashley's credit card. A lunch charge at Petit Bistro right next door to her office. The hostess confirms that the Cosway's where having lunch there on Friday, and the only reason she remembers it is because they were making kind of a scene."

"He's our screamer" Castle realizes.

"They were arguing all the way back to the office." She confirms

"He's the one she was getting a restraining order against."

"Jason's alibi that he was at the game with a friend feel a little squishy to you?" she asks slyly.

"Like a wormy apple."

After asking Karpowski to take another look at Jason Cosway and watching the woman escape as quickly as possible once more, she turns to the sound of Castle asking her if she wants more coffee. Beckett raises a brow in question, she liked her coffee as much as the next cop, ok maybe a little more, but she had just gotten a cup. Even she didn't need another one yet. Usually Castle was more observant than that.

Dismissing the man, she approaches the murder board and almost gleefully moves the picture of Jason Cosway from the family column to that belonging to suspects and writes in a question mark behind the husband's alibi on the timeline.

She just can't shake the feeling that she's being watched though, the hairs standing upright on the back of her neck a distraction from studying the board before her.

She is being watched! Looking up she meets the eyes of a uniform whom she barely recognizes. The man quickly looks down to the papers in his arms and then scuttles out of the room.

A quick glance around the room reveals that he wasn't the only one watching her. Detectives and uniforms alike scatter before her until she manages to pinion one of them who got a little too close.

"Hey, Stegner" she greets, waylaying the other woman's attempts to escape the room like her cohorts had.

"Just admiring the great board work Beckett." she lies through her teeth. Beckett didn't become a detective just because of her good looks. She spends her days determining who's lying and who's telling the truth. Unfortunately for the young woman, the uniform that Beckett has caught in her web seems to have forgotten that.

"Care to share any insight?" the detective asks, allowing the younger woman to dig herself a deeper hole if she dares.

"I really need to… go file." She finishes lamely. Well, the girl isn't stupid, Beckett determines whilst watching her nearly run away.

"Uh huh" she grins like a shark who smells blood in the water.

It's then that Beckett realizes what has been happening all along when she catches sight of money passing from a fellow detective to a rather full looking envelope in Castle's hand.

"Son of a-" she mutters under her breath, stalking across the bullpen towards her quarry. It's not often that she and the boys split up on cases but with the budget being what it is, occasionally they have to take on more than one case at a time. She really can't believe that they would make a bet on who could solve a murder first though. Weren't they more mature than that? Hah, maybe not.

"Nobody move!" she commands, snatching the envelope of money directly from the writer's hands and all three men freeze in their tracks. Nobody dares defy Kate Beckett.

"What is this?" she turns directly to the writer, holding up the incriminating evidence as if for clarification.

"Girl scout cookie orders." He answers without a hitch. She'll allow that he covered quickly, for which she's impressed. Unfortunately for the writer, his excuse gives him away.

"Huh, girl scout cookie orders." She repeats as if in agreement, taking a look at the list of names and figures written on the once white paper. Wow, there are a lot of people involved in this one. Even, is that Montgomery?!

"Yeah I'm just helpin' out the troop." He continues, relief coloring his words. Silly man thinking that she's been fooled for even one second. It would seem that Stegner isn't the only one to forget she's a trained investigator.

"Funny, I didn't realize Alexis was a girl scout." Beckett begins going in for the kill before turning away from the man to go find his cohorts. The writer followed she knew he would.

Speak of the devil, "Freakin' great!" Ryan grumbles as he and Esposito cross the bullpen.

"What happened?"

"Ballistics screwed us." The boys spoke in tandem. It would appear that it's no longer just she and Castle who can perform that particular trick.

"Our mugger's gun doesn't match the bullets taken from our vic." Ryan's voice grows gradually louder until he's all but yelling. All the confirmation that she needs that her suspicions are indeed correct.

Wordlessly she hold the envelope aloft, nearly cracking a smile at the twin looks of horror that cross the guy's faces.

"What's going on?" Ryan asks, braver than she would have given him credit for.

"Betting on murder guys? Really?!" she asks in disbelief.

Cue the denial, but one voice cut above the rest.

"I'm telling you, it's girl scout orders." Castle continues trying to argue.

"Girl scout cookies are sold in February" she all but growls at him, "You guys should be ashamed of yourselves!" she continued, whirling back around to point an incriminating finger at her partners. Castle, she would have expected this from, but not these two.

"Now get back to work!"

Point made, she returns to the murder board, staring a hole into it even though her mind was focused on the envelope of cash still in her hand. The entire precinct had been in on this? How on Earth had it gotten that big? A small part of her even wanted to check and see who was favored to solve the case first. It had better be her and Castle.

"Beckett you are never gonna believe this" Karpowski cuts across the beginnings of an apology from Castle, but she isn't quite ready to let him off the hook just yet.

"Oh the bar on unbelievable is pretty high right now!"

"Vic's husband took out a three million dollar life insurance policy on her, last month."

He did what now? They had this case in the bag now. Hell, she may as well make some money out of this whole mess, "A hundred on us" she tells Castle, thrusting the envelope into the writer's chest.

He just stares after her as she stalks back across the bullpen to where the boys are still seated, ostensibly arguing over whose fault it was they got caught.

"Breakroom, now." She order, not even waiting to see that they follow her.

The room is still empty from when she'd busted Castle there not long before and she shuts the door behind the boys to give them at least a semblance of privacy.

"Listen closely. If our vic confesses first, Me, Lanie, and my favorite toy get to do whatever we want to you for the duration of our next get-together. If in the next hour your vic walks in here and confesses before ours, you get to do the same to me. Got it?" she whispers, aware that they're still at the precinct and that these walls have ears.

"Where's the challenge in that?" Esposito challenges. The only way that's different to usual is that they'd be tied down. That's no kind of punishment.

"Fine. The loser can't orgasm that night. At all." She concedes his point.

Ryan scoffs at the idea, "You really think you could withstand an entire night without getting off?"

"Well, since we're about to go get a confession, I won't be the one to test that theory Kev!"

Esposito on the other hand is intrigued, "And if, when we win, you can't hold back?"

"Well e already suggested wearing a dress to work for a week for whoever lost." Ryan points out.

"Deal" Beckett agrees, giving both men a nod of the head before turning on her heel and exiting the breakroom.

Only to find Castle standing on the other side of the door, eyes wide, clearly having heard everything.

Shit.

"Castle, I-"

"Forget it Beckett," he sighs "I want to see Ryan and Esposito running after a suspect in a miniskirt so let's go get our confession."

He wasn't a part of the group anymore, and they all knew why. So why did she feel so badly all of the sudden that he wasn't involved?

* * *

**Thoughts? Anything you want to see later on? Let me know!**


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